The Federal Ministry of Justice published a regulation on the adjustment of the threshold values in company law (UGB-Schwellenwerte-Verordnung) on 20 November 2024. It contains an inflation-related increase in the thresholds for the categorisation of company sizes. It came into force concurrently with its publication and is to be applied retrospectively for financial years that began on or after 1 January 2024.
1. Background
Under Austrian law, companies are divided into four size categories:
Micro-corporations
Small corporations
Medium-sized corporations
Large corporations
This categorisation has, among other things, an impact on the accounting: the larger the company, the higher the requirements. If a threshold value is exceeded, the company moves to the next higher size category. This increases the requirements, which also results in significantly higher costs.
The regulation implements a delegated directive of the EU Commission (Directive 2023/2775 of 17 October 2023), which in turn is based on the EU Accounting Directive, which provides for the inflation-related adjustment of the size categories. The last adjustment took place in 2013. Since then, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular have exceeded the threshold due to inflation. The new thresholds affect all corporations and capitalised partnerships.
2. Adjustment of the thresholds for classification as a corporation according to § 221 UGB
Size category | Balance sheet total | Sales revenues | Number of employees | ||
Micro-corporations
| so far: € 350.000 | new: € 450.000 | so far: € 700.000 | new: € 900.000 | unchanged: 10 |
Small corporations
| so far: € 5 Mio | new: € 6,25 Mio | so far: € 10 Mio | new: € 12,5 Mio | 50 |
Medium-sized corporations
| so far: € 20 Mio | new: € 25 Mio | so far: € 40 Mio | new: € 50 Mio | 250 |
Large corporations
| so far: € > 20 Mio | new: € > 25 Mio | so far: € > 40 Mio | new: € > 50 Mio | > 250 |
If two of the three criteria are exceeded in two consecutive financial years, the obligations of the next category must be fulfilled in the following year (usually the third). The thresholds for the size-dependent exemptions for consolidated financial statements according to § 246 UGB have also been adjusted.
3. Legal Consequences
As a result of the increase, companies will remain in the smaller size category for longer, which will reduce the effort and costs of accounting. Affected are, for example
The content and scope of the annual financial statements,
obligations to audit financial statements, prepare consolidated financial statements or now also to prepare a sustainability report,
Scope of disclosure.
As the regulation applies retroactively, (audit) obligations may be cancelled retroactively. If an audit contract has already been concluded, the following options are available:
to terminate the audit already in progress and invoice the expenses incurred or
to continue the audit as a voluntary audit.